Fresh off of a flight from a stint on the road in Northern California, Montreea (formerly Miss Money) seems anything but tired. Her luggage lies near the front door and a black leather Adidas bag full of CDs and flyers is laid across the couch. She is feverishly typing an email to a French emcee, Melox and pauses briefly to laugh at a text from one of her graphic designers. She hops on her motorized wheelchair and cruises to her recording studio control room down the hall. Montreea’s relentless work ethic collides with various music requests – even from the industry’s most powerful people. She candidly admits to passing up opportunities to record songs for platinum artists such as Whitney Houston and Rihanna. As she settles behind the recording console to begin work on a mixtape track to be released in Europe, her eyes become fixated on the television. Kobe Bryant slams home a dunk and Montreea whispers, “Champions are dedicated to their dreams.”
Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Montreea began her gospel career at age 2 as she accompanied her father, a Baptist preacher, around the nation. Her trek into classical music began at age 10. At Langham Creek High School, Montreea won the school’s talent show and garnered recognition as an All-State instrumentalist. This caught the eye of a recruiter from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts where she went on to graduate with honors. Afterwards, she received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. She worked towards a double major in music business and audio engineering. She also attended master classes by Patti LaBelle, Oleta Adams, Sting and Quincy Jones. During her college career, Montreea was awarded internships with BMG Records and Island Records. Upon graduating Sum Cum Laude. Shortly thereafter, she was named one of Houston’s top vocalists by SRO. In February 2003, she produced her 1st mixtape, Mob Money I, a CD Baby Editor’s Pick. She immediately became the #1 artist on Cornerband.com, topping 5 different charts. Her moves on the MP3 charts netted Money two lucrative sponsorships.
In 2004, Montreea received devastating news when she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. In 2008 she reflected, “God took away my sexy. Being in a wheelchair is humiliating but humiliation leads to humility.” Despite the grim diagnosis, Montreea signed a management contract with C. Allen Productions and was booked on tours with BET comedy star, Joe Torrey, 2005 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Percy Sledge, and blues legend, Bobby Blue Bland. In 2005, she was named a Black Heritage Society Jr. Achiever and recorded hooks for rappers Spice 1, Teck N9ne and Twitzid of Insane Clown Posse. She then landed her first worldwide distribution deal with Mad Insanity Records. She was featured on MTV Asia, Femmoir and Girl Connex. Montreea produced and hosted Mic Madness, an internet radio show on her own online station, Radio 713. The show featured interviews with three time Grammy award winner, Mr. Richard Wallace of The Mighty Clouds of Joy, Snoop Dogg’s mother and evangelist, Beverly Broadus Green and Mike Jones’ DJ, DJ Slice. Her broadcasting and engineering skills have also been featured on the British Broadcasting Company.
Montreea has produced and engineered sessions for Snoop Dogg’s producer, Keith Clizzark, Billy Cook, Rob G and Miss Keke. Dubbed an “underground musical genius” by Curve Magazine, she has received press in many publications including The New York Times, Chill Magazine, Computer Music Magazine, Blues & Soul Magazine, URB Magazine, Bitch Magazine, Go NYC Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, Instinct Magazine, OutSmart Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, Sapience Magazine, 713 Magazine and the provocative documentary, Pick Up The Mic which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival alongside premieres by Johnny Depp, Dave Chapelle and Madonna. The movie is currently broadcasting on MTV Logo.
By 2006, Montreea had captured Soundclick’s top female artist spot, the no. 1 urban artist spot, a top 10 artist spot, the no. 1 gospel artist spot and the no. 1 gospel song title. Her reign as Soundclick’s no. 1 gospel singer spanned over 4 consecutive years. She also ranked as Soundclick’s no. 1 singer. In April of 2006, Montreea was nominated for a 2006 OutMusic Award for her CD, The Love of Money. In July 2006, she was awarded a 2006 Texas Lifetime Achievement Award. The year of 2006 was capped off with her being named Artist of the Month at Digital Music Planet and a feature by one of the UK’s top authorities in soul music, Soulchoonz. A distribution deal with Dee-Lite Promotions in December of 2006 finally landed her CD in record stores in the UK. In 2006, Montreea completed her 4th year of dj residency at Chances Bar in Houston.
She spent the bulk of 2007 engineering recording sessions for Kris Stylez of Hot Zone Media and Den Den of Straight Profit Records. She also developed 3 radio shows, Mic Madness, A Woman’s Worth, High Praise and Radical Praise. Named Houston’s Ultimate Musical Multitasker in 2007 by The Houston Chronicle and applauded as one of few disabled women with a buzz in urban music by Poor Magazine, media interest in Montreea has flourished. By 2009, Montreea’s 6 year assault on the Soundclick charts continued as she hit no. 5 on the soul charts and no. 7 on the German hip hop charts. In 2010, she was named a MyHouston Ambassador alongised Beyonce, George Bush and George Foreman. She has also appeared as celebrity judge for Houston’s Pride Idol. In 2011, Montreea was nominated for a MyGospel Soul Award and won a 2011 Fresh Award.
